David at Earmark Marine,
I have seen subwoofer brands mentioned on other boat stereo forums (RE and Sundowner specifically). I was curious if it would be worthwhile to replace my two M10w5 currently operating in my boat. But without actually ever hearing them I cannot determine if they will generate more output than I presently have. I would just put these subs in the same sealed enclosures and run the same amplifiers off them if I were to make the switch. Any suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated!

craig,
Keep in mind that a 10" sub of equal surface area and motor strength from various manufacturers will produce roughly the same amount of overall or average energy. You cannot cheat mother nature and bend the laws of physics. But here is the difference. One manufacturer can produce more energy over a narrower bandwidth or less peak energy with more linearity and extension over a wider bandwidth. Again, the total energy is the same. It's just in different places. So if you listen to bass created from real string instruments you might be disappointed with the SPL speakers that impose their own characteristics on all bass instruments and bass tones. However, if you listen to strictly rap and electronic techno, there may be few string instruments with more of a monotanous bass beat generated by a keyboard, synthesizer, laptop, etc., none of which are real instruments. For instance, there are many videos showing the water jumping around the hull of the boat and in each case the bass sound is totally indiscriminant.
So importers like RE and Sundown take off-the-shelf China parts to make a speaker that is focused on one thing for one type of listener. A paper cone in this day and age is kind of a give away.
While not for me personally, these type of speakers are exactly what some people want and those are the people usually populating the DIY and car audio forums.

From the photo, the glue seam did not fail. The spider fatiqued and was torn at the most vulnerable point close to the voice coil from excessive excursion (when it was completely stretched out the back and forth bend became extreme at the termination). This can be a result of simply being over-driven and abused. This can also be a result of the wrong crossover point, using bass boost or eq when you shouldn't, or an enclosure without a terminal cup and/or that was unsealed by some other means. Any woofer will have obvious distortion before it fails in that manner.

As much as I like the sound quality of the M10W5's, I think people in our boat are there for the party (loud music) and could careless about SQ. I just hope that if I buy and install a set of high output (SPL) type subs that I don't dislike the sound they produce. I am willing to give up some SQ for volume.

Going back a few years I replaced a JL sub with an Alpine Type R. Hated the sound of the Type R, didnt seem to be faithfully reproducing the music, so I removed them. that was in a vehicle tho.